The City of Windsor's 2025 proposed budget, tabled by mayor Drew Dilkens Friday morning, calls for $1,435,180 in cuts to Transit Windsor.
The document also calls for an increase in fares of 3.23 per cent, with a target implementation date of Apr. 1, 2025.
Mayor Drew Dilkens told reporters the tunnel bus service would also be under review once council begins deliberations.
"We operate the tunnel bus, it's a highly subsidized service that is used by residents in every municipality throughout Essex County to get to different games. It's not just a service for Windsorites, but Windsorites, much like something like the E.C. Row [Expressway] pay the full fare of the subsidy. That's not right, that's not right. Windsorites can't carry all of the weight for providing regional services like this."
He says all options are on the table including the potential elimination of the tunnel bus service.
"It'll be up to city council to decide the path forward, but like I said, there's no sacred cows, so everything at Transit was looked at, all of the different service areas were looked at, and council will have to decide what path to take."
Dilkens says council will have to consider the costs of operating the service.
"Because there's jobs involved here, we're going to have those deliberations in-camera to decide whether to move forward with those kind of discussions or not."
A 50 per cent increase to the tunnel and special events fare is also on the table, increasing to $15 each way.
Transit Windsor has entered into a licensing agreement with FlixBus for exclusive use of one bus bay at the Windsor International Transit Terminal located downtown.
FlixBus has been operating out of Windsor since 2022, using a curbside stop at 181 Goyeau Street, which was not ideal as blocked existing businesses.
The agreement is expected to generate an additional $56,000 in annual revenue for Transit Windsor.
The first council meeting of the year on Jan. 13 will provide residents the oppourinity to appear as delegates and offer feedback on the draft budget.
Council deliberations begin on Jan. 27.